New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham (80) celebrates his touchdown reception with quarterback Drew Brees (9) and tight end David Thomas in the first half an NFL football game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Sunday, Nov. 11, 2012. (AP Photo/Bill Feig) less

New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham (80) celebrates his touchdown reception with quarterback Drew Brees (9) and tight end David Thomas in the first half an NFL football game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome ... more

Photo: Bill Feig, Associated Press

Raiders' Allen has fan in Saints' coach

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Maybe when Saints interim head coach Joe Vitt is done giving his team a pep talk, and making sure they're ready for the Raiders on Sunday, he could go to the Oakland locker room.

The Raiders, even after giving up 97 points - including a team-record 55 at Baltimore on Sunday - the past two weeks, are dangerous, Vitt said.

Vitt said - and the history books bear him out - that since 2005, when a team allows more than 50 points in a game and then plays at home the following week, that team is 5-1.

"They wind up having four sacks, forcing three turnovers and allowing 20 points," he said. "Offensively, they score 26 points and they rush for 146 yards. Now that's history. That's what history tells us."

Vitt worked with Oakland head coach Dennis Allen when Allen was the Saints' defensive backs coach from 2008 to '10, and he is a big fan.

"D.A. is going to stay the course," Vitt said. "He is going to get people healthy, he is going to circle the wagons and we're going to get the Raiders' best game of the year."

The Saints (4-5) have won four of their past five, and beat the undefeated Falcons Sunday. The oddsmakers in Las Vegas made New Orleans - a team with a losing record on the road - a five-point favorite over the Raiders (3-6).

The Saints obviously think highly of Allen from his time there. Vitt said Raiders fans should trust in the first-year head coach.

"There is not a more qualified guy to be coaching that team than Dennis Allen right now," Vitt said. "Allen was here with us since '06. Dennis Allen is smart, Dennis Allen has great people skills, Dennis Allen knows how to teach, motivate and inspire.

"D.A. has always had the 'It' factor."

Vitt even seemed to take a shot at last year's Raiders head coach, Hue Jackson.

"Dennis Allen is not going to go off the cuff ... by saying or doing dumb things," Vitt said. "He is going to have his football team focused and he is going to have them get better."

Allen won a Super Bowl ring with the Saints, and thanks them for getting his first head-coaching job at 39 (he turned 40 two months ago).

"I started coaching in the National Football League in Atlanta, but really I grew up in the National Football League in New Orleans," said Allen, who became the Broncos' defensive coordinator last season.

Story time: Vitt had a great story about his first meeting with late Raiders owner Al Davis at the NFL combine in 1981. Vitt had just been fired as the strength coach and quality-control coach for the Colts, and was looking for a job.

"There I am in the locker room during the player weigh-in and I spot Mr. Davis," Vitt said. "I go up to him and I say 'Coach, my name is Joe Vitt. I'm only 26 years old but I have been in the league three years. I was the strength coach. I was the quality-control coach. I gave out the tickets on the plane ...'

"I told him all the wonderful accomplishments I had over my three-year period with the Baltimore Colts. And he looked me in the eye and said, 'Son, when I was 26 years old, I was the commissioner of the AFL.' "

It turns out that at the age of 26, Davis was actually an assistant coach at The Citadel. Maybe that makes the story even better.

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